AN IMAGE PROCESSING TECHNIQUE FOR DIAGNOSIS OF ALZHEIMER'S DISEASE

摘要

BACKGROUND: Patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) reportedly exhibit hypersensitivity to much diluted tropicamide solution (0.005%), a M4 muscarinic receptor antagonist. Therefore intraocular application of 0.005% tropicamide may be useful for screening dementia. The aim of this study was to simplify the pupil response test by using a new image analyzing system, which consists of a cheap, simple, and easy to use web-camera and a computer.METHODS: Intraocular tropicamide of 0.005% concentration was administered in 3 groups: Alzheimer's disease patients (n=8, average age=76 ± 5), non-Alzheimer's disease elderly (n=6, average age=65 ± 7), and young subjects (n=8, average age=28 ± 5). Every 5 minutes for 60 minutes, image of the eye's shape were taken, and the diameter of the pupils was measured.RESULTS: The results showed that differences in pupil dilation rate between Alzheimer's disease and non-Alzheimer's disease subjects were statistically significant. ROC analysis showed that after 35 minutes the sensitivity and specificity of the test were 100%.CONCLUSIONS: Based on our results, we concluded that this recording system might be an appropriate and reliable tool for pupil response diagnosis test of Alzheimer's disease.